Katie Vold shoots high for women’s basketball

With the 2014-2015 Logger women’s basketball season now making headway, first year Katie Vold (Spokane, Wash.) is ready to take on the challenges of playing collegiate ball.

Vold first officially began playing basketball at the age of five, although she has been shooting around on driveway courts before she can remember. Her older brother Taylor got her interested in the sport in the first place.

“I remember sitting in gyms all the time, watching his games and thinking about how much I wanted to be like him,” Vold said. “Since then, he is the one who has shaped me into the athlete I am today. He knows my game better than anyone and would work/critique me whenever he could, even if I didn’t want his advice.”

Her sophomore year, Taylor became an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team at Vold’s high school.

“He was at every game and practice,” Vold said. “Honestly, he’s the reason I am here today.”

Vold played for Freeman High School in Spokane, Wash.

She describes her high school basketball career as having its fair share of ups and downs.

“My freshman year, we won state which was hands down the best feeling of my life,” Vold said. “I remember cutting down the net and then looking over to my parents and just crying. I’m generally not the most emotional person, but I was so overwhelmed with emotional right then.”

In addition to state champions, her team also held championship titles in the league, district champs, as well as regionals.

Vold, herself, made the second team all-state.

Then her sophomore year, her team was the state runner-up.

“Being runner-up was arguably one of the worst feelings in the world,” Vold said. “Knowing you were so close to one of the best moments of your basketball career or life is hard, especially knowing you were fully capable of it.”

During her junior year, Vold had surgery on her right hand to repair a torn ligament, but, despite this, she still made the second team all-league team.

Vold went out strong her senior year, making the first team all-conference and being awarded league MVP.

“I never really considered not continuing my basketball career after high school. It just ultimately came down to where I would be the happiest,” Vold said. “I would know if I would fit in and if they wanted me there. Puget Sound was the first school that never made me second-guess.”

Vold first toured campus the summer going into her senior year.

“One of my friends was really interested in coming here, so we visited and I Immediately fell in love with it,” Vold said. “It turned out my club basketball coach knew our head coach really well and began talking to her about recruiting me.”

In January of 2014, Vold came for a visit and met with the women’s head basketball coach Loree Payne and the rest of girls on the team.

While at Puget Sound, Vold plans on majoring in communications and minoring in business with an emphasis in marketing.

Before the season started in October, the team attended workouts and open gyms every day to prepare, and over this past summer, each player had individual workouts to do at home.

Vold says college basketball is more physically demanding than in high school.

“They ask a lot more of you regarding your body, lifting, conditioning, and practice in general, but that’s definitely expected,” Vold said.

Although the transition wasn’t easy, Vold explains that it was bearable because of her teammates.

“[My teammates] were always willing to help keep us freshman in the loop when something needed to be explained,” Vold said. “I have never been around a bunch of girls who are continuously laughing, dancing and making jokes. Everyone gets along. Even off the court and out of the gym, there’s about a 99 percent chance that at least a few of us are still together.”

Because no one is playing on a scholarship, Vold claims that Division III is a unique aspect of college basketball.

“Everyone is here strictly for the love of the game,” Vold said. “Anyone who plays college sports is here because they want to be. That alone changed the motivation and goals of the team.”

The Logger women’s basketball team officially began practice on Oct. 15, and they took on the Seattle Pacific University Falcons on Nov. 7 for their first preseason game.

The Logger women’s basketball team will play next at the Johns Hopkins Tip-Off Tournament in Baltimore, Md. Nov. 15-16.